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Philosophical Foundations of Children's and Family Law

Edited by Elizabeth Brake and Lucinda Ferguson

Description

This volume brings together new essays in law and philosophy on a broad range of topics in children's and family law. It is the first volume to bring together essays by legal scholars and philosophers for an integrated, critical analysis of key issues in this area, marking the 'coming of age' of a comparatively new field of family law.

Debates in children's and family law are at once theoretical and empirical in nature. Not only does children's and family law have significant consequences for individuals' intimate lives, the field's impact on lived experience highlights the socially constructed nature of law. Approaching this area of law often involves exploring a legal concept familiar from daily life, such as the very notion of 'marriage' or 'family', and examining it within its social, economic, and historical context. The normative basis for law regulating intimate personal and family life extends beyond any narrow legal philosophy or social context to its broader foundations in theories of morality or justice.

The chapters included bring together a representative and broad range of pieces that engage with long-standing and contemporary debates. A wide range of perspectives is represented on topics such as same-sex marriage, polygamy and polyamory, alimony, unmarried cohabitation, gestational surrogacy and assisted reproductive technologies, child support, parental rights and responsibilities, children's rights, family immigration, religious freedom, and the rights of paid caregivers. There is also philosophical discussion of concepts such as care, intimacy, and the nature of family and family law itself.

Philosophical Foundations of Children's and Family Law

Edited by Elizabeth Brake and Lucinda Ferguson

Author Information

Edited by Elizabeth Brake, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University, and Lucinda Ferguson, Associate Professor of Family Law, University of Oxford

Elizabeth Brake is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University. She is the author of Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law and editor of After Marriage: Rethinking Marital Relationships (both with Oxford University Press).

Lucinda Ferguson is Associate Professor of Family Law, University of Oxford; Tutorial Fellow in Law, Oriel College, Oxford; and an Associate Member of 1 King's Bench Walk. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on conceptual puzzles within family law, such as the justifiability of financial obligations upon relationship breakdown and arbitration, as well as children's law, particularly debates over children's rights.

Contributors:

Scott Altman is the Virginia S. and Fred H. Bice Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, where he teaches Family Law and Property.

David Archard is Professor of Philosophy at Queen's University Belfast, and has written extensively in applied ethics, political and moral philosophy, especially on the subject of children's rights, the family, and the state.

Charlotte Bendall is a Lecturer in Law and Socio-legal Studies at the University of Essex.

Brian H. Bix is the Frederick W. Thomas Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

Elizabeth Brake is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University.

Ronald C. Den Otter (Political Science, California Polytechnic State University) received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

James G. Dwyer is Professor of Law at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA, where he teaches courses in youth law, family law, and law & social justice.

John Eekelaar taught family law at Pembroke College, Oxford from 1965 to 2005, and was its Academic Director from 2005-2009.

Lucinda Ferguson is Associate Professor of Family Law at the University of Oxford; Tutorial Fellow in Law at Oriel College, Oxford; and an Associate Member of 1 King's Bench Walk.

Rosie Harding is Chair in Law and Society at the University of Birmingham and a 2016/17 British Academy Mid-Career Fellow.

Diane Jeske received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992.

Robert Leckey is dean of the Faculty of Law and holds the Samuel Gale Chair in Law at McGill University.

Matthew Lister is currently a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics in the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and senior fellow at the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research.

Colin Macleod is Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Victoria.

Mary Lyndon (Molly) Shanley is Professor of Political Science Emerita on the Margaret Stiles Halleck Chair at Vassar College.

Philosophical Foundations of Children's and Family Law

Edited by Elizabeth Brake and Lucinda Ferguson

Reviews and Awards

"This collection of essays offer fascinating insights and encourage critical interdisciplinary thinking. It will prove to be an enjoyable read and a valuable resource for a wide range of readers." - Maria Federica Moscati, The International Journal of Children's Rights